Friday, December 03, 2010

Mondo Diablo Episode 285: The Boar's Head

This week, the BBC shares information about Boar's Heads and Yule logs, which is all incredibly interesting. But I would like to share some information about the Stallo, the Metal Man, who is another in my growing list of Annual Gift-Giving Men other than Saint Nicholas.

You can read the original article here.

http://www.laweekly.com/2002-12-26/news/santa-is-a-wildman/

And yes, it was a story in the Fortean Times.

The Saami await a Yuletide visit from a giant, horned and hairy wildman named Stallo. In Lappish, stallo means "metal man." Sometimes Stallo is dressed in stylish, all-black clothes like an MIB (man in black) or in a metallic suit (as conspiracy theorists conjecture, a robot or ancient astronaut in a space suit). Most likely the metal suit was the chain-mail armor of the berserker Vikings. The amoral Stallo delights in macabre acts of genital mutilation of his innocent victims. (Stallo pokes his staff up the skirts of young girls.) On Christmas Eve, Stallo rides around in his sleigh looking for something to drink. Traditionally, the Saami drive a stake into the ground near a fresh-water supply so Stallo can tie up his sled while having a refreshing gulp of water. If Stallo cannot find anything to drink, he will bash in a child's skull, sucking out the brains and blood to satiate his thirst. The most dangerous night for Lapp children is Christmas Eve, when Stallo lurks about looking for naughty victims to cram into his sack.